The whole point of tagging, as I understand it, is to get noticed. So when UK cops got the bright idea of taking pictures of graffiti tags around town and posting them to their Facebook wall in a “Wall of Shame,” wouldn’t that just encourage the artists into throwing their tagging efforts into overdrive?

Police logging and photographing tags, seen as a badge of honour amongst graffiti artists, which will be kept on record and used when offenders are identified.

And a wall of shame has been created on Facebook so the public can also see the graffiti tags.

Yep, good luck with that, Halesowen PD.

photo c/o LTV

A blogger found their way into McCarren Pool locker rooms before they were gutted and discovered a treasure trove of graffiti dating to the 1980′s. They’re calling it “the most impressive graffiti discovery of 2010, period.”

LTV Blog writes:

All of the graffiti you see here (well, with one or two exceptions) was done inside the locker rooms of the pool during the 1980s. The date range of these tags runs from 1983 to approximately 1987. It is rather easy to conclude that during the years immediately after the pool was closed, the entire site was completely abandoned – doors left open, and vandals taking full advantage. At some point in the late 80s the buildings were sealed up with concrete and reinforced iron. From that point on, even while the exterior of the building became an illegal graffiti haven, no other graffiti artists gained access to the locker rooms.

Up top is just one of ten photos they posted. You can view the rest here.

Big h/t to Animal for pointing us to LTV, which is now securely set in my RSS reader.

Update: Damn. These guys also found their way into a network of underground McCarren Pool tunnels (!!!) and shot another batch of graffiti there. Check that out here.